Before long, more than twenty villagers had gathered in front of Baek Woo Jin. Their eyes were filled with endless gratitude as they looked at him.
“Young hero!”
“We’re so glad you woke up!”
“We’re truly sorry!”
Gratitude, apologies, relief.
All kinds of words flooded his ears and overwhelmed him.
It was then.
– Kyaung!
The little white tiger which had been asleep in Baek Woo Jin’s arms as if it were dead suddenly raised its buried head and let out a small growl of its own.
“The… the mountain spirit!”
“It’s the baby mountain spirit!”
The villagers’ gazes shifted and became uncomfortably intense. If this went any further, they seemed like they might even turn into fanatics willing to die at his command.
“Everyone, calm down and listen to what I have to say first.”
As Baek Woo Jin spoke, the middle-aged man who had led the Divine Dragon team to the village quieted the other villagers before bowing respectfully to him.
“Please speak, young hero.”
He looked around at the now-silent villagers and began to speak.
“As you know, this incident occurred because the great white tiger you worship as the mountain spirit turned into a demonic beast.”
“Ah…!”
“The mountain spirit….”
A murmur of sorrow followed.
“In order to resolve this, we had to subdue the great white tiger, and after much hardship, we were able to release it from its suffering.”
Several villagers wiped away their tears.
“Just before it entered eternal rest, the great white tiger… the mountain spirit briefly regained its senses.”
The middle-aged man who had been silently listening with reddened eyes cautiously asked.
“Did it … leave any words for us?”
“There are.”
The villagers fought back their sobs as they waited to hear the last words of the mountain spirit.
“It asked me to tell you that it is sorry for making you commit such terrible acts.”
And then.
“The White Tiger also said there is no longer a mountain spirit in this place, so it told you to leave the mountain and live freely.”
“Mountain spirit…!”
“Oh, mountain spirit!”
“How can we leave the mountain spirit behind and go anywhere…?”
The villagers cried one after another. To them, the mountain spirit had been a parent and a strong protector.
To leave behind the one they had served their entire lives, to abandon their home…this was a heartbreaking request for them.
One of the villagers who had been crying stood up and pointed at the white tiger rolling around in Baek Woo Jin’s arms.
“Isn’t there still a baby mountain spirit here?”
“That’s right! If we serve the baby mountain spirit…!”
To quell the growing movement to revere the baby white tiger as a new mountain spirit, Baek Woo Jin infused power into his voice.
“Stop.”
His solemn tone echoed and everyone fell silent.
“I’m taking this child with me. It was the mountain spirit’s final request to me.”
“B-But…”
“Neither you nor this white tiger should be tied to this mountain any longer.”
Baek Woo Jin showed them the white tiger, who was happily playing in his arms as if without a care in the world.
“Do you really want to burden someone so small with such a heavy responsibility?”
“…….”
None of them could offer a response.
“We understand the command to leave the mountain.”
The middle-aged man stood up and bowed his head.
“We will follow the mountain spirit’s wishes.”
“V-Village Chief!”
“You know how difficult it is to settle in another village!”
The villagers voiced their discontent toward the middle-aged man who was also the village chief.
Their concerns were understandable. It was obvious that they needed that much money to settle down in a foreign land, and they, who had lived self-sufficiently, surely didn’t have such funds.
Baek Woo Jin spoke up to address their problem.
“The mountain spirit said to make good use of its body, which it left behind.”
“The mountain spirit’s… body?”
“It’s the last gift left to you all, so don’t let it go to waste; make sure to use it wisely.”
“Oh, mountain spirit…!”
Baek Woo Jin scratched his head with an embarrassed expression on his face.
Maybe I lied a little too well.
As he watched them, he felt it would be a shame to simply bury the body of the Great White Tiger and let it rot in the ground. He had simply made up some convenient words, afraid they might refuse outright if he suggested they sell the body of the one they had served all this time.
The villagers were now in tears.
– Kyaung?
In the midst of it all, the little white tiger still acted in a cute way.
***
At dawn, Baek Woo Jin and his team woke up, slung the bags they had packed the night before over their shoulders, and left the houses they had been staying in for the past few days.
As they approached the village entrance, the waiting villagers came up to them.
The village chief was standing at the front and spoke on behalf of the group.
“You’re leaving now?”
“Yes. We’ve finished what we came to do, so it’s time for us to return.”
“I deeply apologize for not being able to give you a proper reception.”
When the village chief showed a face full of regret, Baek Woo Jin shook his head with a light smile.
“Your kindness is more than enough.”
“Uh….”
A woman who had been standing behind the village chief stepped forward. She was holding a small basket in her hands.
“I boiled some potatoes for you to snack on during your journey….”
Baek Woo Jin quickly accepted the basket with great joy.
“Thank you. We will enjoy these.”
At that, small smiles appeared on the faces of the villagers.
The village chief, who also showed a smile he hadn’t shown before, spoke to him.
“We too will soon leave the village and settle in another place.”
With a wistful expression on his face, he gazed at the spot where the mountain spirit was buried before his eyes grew teary.
“If it’s the final blessing bestowed by the mountain spirit… it should be more than enough.”
The tiger’s remains were valuable. Especially the remains of a huge mystical creature, people would pay any price for it.
That money would allow the dozens of villagers to leave their beloved homes and settle elsewhere.
“Send a letter to Jeongmu Academy. I will definitely visit you later.”
“Haha! When that time comes, I’ll make sure to give you a proper reception.”
After exchanging their final goodbyes, Baek Woo Jin and the Divine Dragon team set off.
“Thank you so much!”
“We’ll never forget this!”
The villagers’ farewells somehow gave their steps more strength.
***
Except for the occasional trips to nearby villages to purchase necessities, the priestess, who was entering a busy place for the first time in her life, experienced what hardships felt like.
There were those who tried to swindle her after they saw how naive she looked; there were also countless others who approached her with the intent of assaulting her due to her outstanding beauty.
Though her considerable martial skills allowed her to protect herself from them, she had come to fully understand the dangers of the world.
Because of this, she began to long for the life she had once found so tedious at the Virtuous Heaven Sect.
Great hero, where are you…?
However, she decided to see all this as a trial she had to endure in order to find the destiny hero. Steeling her resolve, she wandered far and wide during the day, and at night she watched the hero’s star to determine his direction. But that was all she could do.
“At least tell me how far I have to go…!”
The unkind star only revealed the direction he was in. But it offered no hint as to how much farther she had to travel.
And so another day passed.
Following the direction the star had shown her the night before, the priestess continued her diligent journey when suddenly she felt her chest grow warm.
“This, this is…!”
To be precise, it wasn’t her chest but the Virtuous Heaven Sect’s secret manual she had tucked away that was heating up.
“Could it be…!”
It was a phenomenon she remembered from the records left by the former priestess, who had accompanied the hero in the past.
She hurriedly opened the first page of the secret manual.
“Ah!”
Where once there had been nothing written, the page was now filled with tightly packed writing.
[In a village nestled at the foot of Hundred Li Mountain, trouble has arisen, and the hero is setting out to resolve it….]
It was the beginning, a sign of the hero’s awakening.
The true name of the secret manual was “Chronicles of the Hero”.
An epic saga that the priestess who watched the hero’s steps had to write herself was writing itself of its own accord.
“Hundred Li Mountain…!”
It was a milestone. This was likely to reprimand the priestess who had not yet reached him even though the hero took his first steps, and to guide her path.
“Please wait for me, Hero…! I will find you soon!”
Her once sluggish steps regained their vigor.
Though she was already a step behind.
***
“Hmm…”
On the journey back to the Jeongmu Academy, Baek Woo Jin spent the night on another mountain path. As everyone else slept, he stood watch and examined the core he had obtained from the White Tiger.
“This won’t do as it is…”
For the team mission report, he had brought back a claw and a fang from the White Tiger, but that alone wasn’t enough to determine whether the creature had been an ordinary tiger or a spirit beast turned into a monster.
“In the end, this is the most crucial piece of evidence.”
Spirit beasts normally possess a core, and attaching the one he had obtained from the tiger’s belly would surely earn him higher marks.
But there was a problem.
The core was saturated with such intense demonic energy.
“If I submit it like this, I’ll never get it back.”
If he handed in the core as evidence while it was still filled with demonic energy, there was no doubt it would never be returned to him.
So, somehow, he had to purify the demonic energy.
“I don’t have enough time….”
Since waking up, he had been soaking the core in a flask he had prepared in advance and pouring alcohol with the Drinking Wine cultivation technique into it. However, the demonic energy was so potent that cleansing it required a great deal of time.
He had been cutting back on his training under the excuse of poor health. All in the hope that would give him more time, but it still wasn’t enough.
“What do I do?”
As he racked his brain for a good solution, his gaze fell on the dazed faces of Gu Wang Soo and Jang Sam, who were practically sleeping on top of each other.
“That’s it.”
Suddenly, a plan began to take shape.
“Alright, wake up!”
As soon as dawn broke, he raised his voice to wake the soundly sleeping team members.
The team who were well-accustomed to camping by now rubbed their sleepy eyes, stood up, and chewed on pieces of jerky as they lazily packed up the camp supplies.
“Everyone, gather up!”
“Gather…”
“Okay…”
Mumbling weakly, the team members sluggishly gathered in front of Baek Woo Jin.
“Well, well, look at this.”
The tone of his voice made it sound like he had caught them red-handed. The team members quickly straightened up; their loose military discipline snapped back into place.
But it was already too late.
“Your minds are rotting.”
“N-No, sir!”
They raised their voices in protest, but as mentioned before, Baek Woo Jin had already made up his mind.
That decision had been made since the night before.
“This sergeant… no, this team leader is disappointed in all of you.”
“Sorry!”
“Does saying sorry excuse you as a team member?”
“No, sir!”
He was very satisfied with how quickly discipline was restored among the team.
Though he had never been in the military, it made him wonder if this was the kind of satisfaction that kept commanders going.
He hid his pleased expression and kept a stern look on his face while staring at them in silence.
“You are all very weak right now. Are you aware of that?”
“Yes sir!”
Everyone responded with a firm “Yes”.
“No sir!”
Only Gu Wang Soo who was oblivious to the situation shouted “No” with all his might.
Baek Woo Jin’s lips twisted into a smirk.
“Is that so? Then how about you and I have a match?”
“I’m weak! So weak that it’s pathetic!”
Gu Wang Soo barely managed to avoid a disaster. Then he breathed a sigh of relief after he narrowly dodged a fight with that monster of a leader.
“Since it would be a shame to leave things as they are, I’ve decided to give you all a mission.”
“A mission…?”
Sensing a bad omen, Shin Ye Hwa was the first to cautiously ask.
“From now on, we will only move through the mountains until we reach the academy.”
The team members exchanged glances. They talked quietly about how it would be a little difficult, but it was still possible.
However.
“We’ll also capture every bandit we come across in those mountains.”
“Hah!”
“Eeek?!”
“How’s that? Easy, right?”
In order to buy time to purify his core, a desperate move was made to tie down the team members.
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